The Thirteen Trials of the Deceptive Monk

Chai Luo put down his knife, pulled down his vest, revealing three bright green medals! Qi Ya, who was painting an oil painting nearby, explained, "Don't let the president's strange appearance fool you, he won the Spring Festival three times in a row during his undergraduate years."

Lu Wenjun was shocked: "Huh?! Chai Luo?!"

"The first year was the Botanical Art Competition! The second year was the Gem Fruit Cultivation Competition! The third year was the Sacred Tree Planting Competition!" Chai Luo said proudly. "After winning three consecutive championships in three years, I was awarded the Spring Messenger Medal by Ms. Cole and was inducted into the Spring Festival Hall of Fame. Since then, I have been a regular participant as a judge!"

"To put it bluntly, it's like, 'You always win the games, it's so boring, so we're issuing you this badge so you won't come back,'" Chia said.

"No, why?! Senior, aren't you a specialist in sculpture and painting? How come you can win the plant-related competition?!"

"Naive!" Chai Luo sneered. "Being bound by mere creative forms is proof of naivety and inexperience. As long as you grasp the core, you can create rational art regardless of the form!"

"Can't you speak like a normal person? What does 'core' mean?" Faris asked.

“Farris, I advise you to understand this basic concept before creating your work,” Chai Luo scoffed. “The core of art is ‘beauty.’ Do you even know what ‘beauty’ means?”

Chapter 27 Art is the Self

“Isn’t beauty just being pretty? If everyone finds something pleasing to the eye, then it’s beautiful,” Faris said.

"To give a precise definition, it's something that people like?" Vilsa added.

Chai Luo sneered repeatedly, pointing at them and mocking, "Vulgar! Shallow! Utterly tasteless!"

"Wow, he's only been in the club for two minutes and he's already so empathetic towards the vice president. How has this person managed to survive until now?" Lu Wenjun said.

“This is typical of an amateur’s statement, because you don’t even understand the most basic concepts.” Chai Luo stood up, picked up a paintbrush, and started drawing in the air. “Look carefully, this is the basic structure of the so-called concept of ‘beauty’.”

He drew a bright, solid golden circle out of thin air, then drew a shallow arc around the outside of the circle, and colored the area between the two circles.

“These vibrant, colorful patches are what you call beauty.” Chai Luo tapped the colored parts with the tip of his pen. “Others’ evaluations, others’ preferences, ambiguous definitions without clear standards, are the universal aesthetic concepts held by a broad group called the masses. I ask you, what exactly is the aesthetic of the masses?”

Lu Wenjun pondered: "This... a beautiful girl? A blooming flower? Like the ice flowers in a winter swimming competition, something that looks beautiful at first glance..."

"So, what exactly makes Lady Morana's ice flowers so beautiful?" Chai Luo pressed on, "Don't use ambiguous descriptions like 'appearance' or 'aura'! Give me precise text, like a description of a spell's structure and effects!"

"This……"

I can't think of anything. When the words come to mind, all I can manage are compliments like "beautiful" and "exquisite," but I struggle to articulate the detailed structure like a professional. Is it because I lack professional knowledge...? No, that doesn't seem to be the case...

“I really can’t do that…” Faris nodded slowly. “Is it because I… ‘don’t understand’?”

"Finally realized your shallowness, huh, member Faris?" Chai Luo waved his hand. "Vice President, give the newbies a lecture on art!"

Chia remained standing in front of the canvas, painting as he spoke: “This is what most viewers consider ‘beauty.’ You can’t find any ‘reality’ in it because it is ‘commonality’ extracted from the evaluations of countless different groups. Commonality is bound to be broad and vague. It is nothing more than a mosaic of colors pieced together by countless eyes, seemingly elegant.”

"That's why the president said you're shallow, that your focus was wrong from the start. The real core that needs attention is inside, in what you can accurately grasp."

Chai Luo tapped the golden solid circle with the tip of his pen.

“This circle is called ‘I’,” he said. “What do I like? What do I think is the best? What do I most want to create? What is the idea I most want to express? If you don’t figure out these questions, your creation will never begin.”

Velsa thought about it seriously for a while and asked, "But senior, this constitutes a deviation in concept. You're talking about preferences, but we started by discussing 'beauty'!"

“You’ve grasped the key point,” Chai Luo said. “Beauty is the core of creation, but you can never use beauty as the starting point for creation because beauty is an empty, hollow concept. Beauty itself does not exist!”

"The vice president just gave a vivid example: beauty is an ambiguous image pieced together from fragments observed by the public. The beauty you envision is like a faceless woman without features. You try your best to think about her clothes and her expression, but the more you think about it, the more blurred it becomes, because you are pursuing something that does not exist. How can you grasp its exact appearance?"

“But preferences are different,” he suddenly asked Faris. “What kind of erotic art do you like?”

Without a second thought, Faris described it as: "Blonde, wavy hair, office lady style, model figure, black stockings, high heels, square-framed glasses, aloof and indifferent!"

Lu Wenjun exclaimed in amazement: "Dude, how did you manage to say that so off the cuff?!"

Upon hearing this, Chai Luo picked up his brush and, in less than half a minute, sketched a blonde office worker of about 24 years old, her expression so lifelike it looked like a candid photograph. He turned to Virsa: "And you?"

Versa answered very quickly: "I like petite, quiet women with an oriental style. A flat figure is fine."

“Your tastes and appearance are completely different, you idiot!!!” Lu Wenjun said.

Chai Luo drew another short, black-haired, straight-haired literary girl and said to Lü Wenjun, "You... oh, you don't need to. Anyway, the whole school knows what kind of girl you like."

"What do you know? Why have things I've never said become common knowledge?!"

"In short, this is the truth." Chai Luo pointed back and forth between two portraits of his ideal woman. "Beauty is vague, but preferences are real. With the guidance of preferences, there is a blueprint for creation. Only with the created work itself can there be room to talk about 'beauty'."

He casually wiped away the graffiti and scoffed, "This is the foundation of aesthetics, newbies. If you don't grasp what you like, no matter how hard you put in, you'll only end up with empty dreams."

“But we have absolutely no interest in flowers and plants,” Lü Wenjun said. “Then aren’t we doomed to lose?”

“Another common misconception: you’ve confused ‘theme’ with ‘genre’.” Chai Luo shook his head. “What kind of stories do you like?”

"Superpowered combat, school romance, and heroic adventure..."

"So, if it's a superpower-based combat story, would you only read the comics and not watch the anime or movies?" Chia asked.

“Generally speaking, that wouldn’t happen…” Lu Wenjun thought for a moment, “You mean…”

“Whether it’s carving or flower cultivation, they’re just vehicles for telling stories. What matters is the story itself that you love.” Chai Luo put down his paintbrush. “I have absolutely no interest in flowers and gardening, but that didn’t stop me from winning the championship three years in a row—because those flowers and plants are just materials provided by the goddess. What I want to tell is my own story. Do you understand?”

He returned to the head sculpt and began to concentrate on carving, clearly not wanting to waste any more words. Chia, who was still drawing, said, "By the way, those were just the rants of a mentally ill genius like the president. Ordinary creators who try to do cross-disciplinary work usually fail miserably. If you don't have the talent, don't try."

"Okay, thanks," Faris said. "By the way, what was your ranking back then, Vice President?"

"7th in the first year, 4th in the second year, and runner-up in the third year. From the fourth year onwards, the club president was banned from the competition, so I was too lazy to participate. Anyway, I would win."

"You're clearly a genius too..."

Chia replied listlessly, "So what? This school has no shortage of geniuses. Aren't you all 'geniuses' too?"

After thanking him, Lü Wenjun left the club activity room and whispered, "Did you guys notice? Qi Ya has been drawing non-stop."

"To be fair, the president of the first club, despite being a bit of a jerk, is quite hardworking. He's basically been like that ever since the fight at Frost Smoke Lake last year," Faris told him. "After arguing, they fight and then get back to work, because a lot of the time, Chai Luo's lies have some merit... Admitting that will only make your already annoyed mood even more annoyed."

"A very ideal creative environment," Virsa commented.

They returned to the open space behind the teaching building, staring at the large blue-petaled fist-shaped flower standing in the soil. Lü Wenjun found a pair of scissors and carefully trimmed the fist back to its original shape. He then took out the seeds he had previously smuggled and said, "A seed has four reset chances; we have one left. I brought a big bag of seeds; after we use this one, we can try again one by one..."

“Dude, to be honest, I don’t really like this approach,” Faris said. “What if you’re not satisfied with what you grow? Are you just going to throw it out into the wild to fend for itself? It’s like some mad scientist’s experiment.”

“That’s very irresponsible,” Vilsa agreed. “If the seeds don’t grow well, we should try to cultivate them instead of throwing them away.”

“Okay, you’ve convinced me.” Lü Wenjun stuffed the bag of seeds back into his backpack. “That’s settled then! One-off deal, no more fuss. Let’s think about what direction we should cultivate this time—what kind of plants do you like?”

Faris placed his palm on the table and blurted out, "Men like handsome guys!"

“Be strong,” Versa said, reaching out her hand. “You need to have enough strength!”

“And I prefer that kind of… tenacious life.” Lü Wenjun placed his hand on the seed third, feeling his thoughts becoming clearer as he spoke. “I hope you have a handsome appearance, strong strength, and unwavering perseverance. This will help you grow continuously.”

Together they removed their palms, and a new flower sprouted from the soil: a tiny thing no bigger than a palm, with thick petals covering its little head like an oversized hat, a square green body topped with a small head of the same color, with shiny black eyes, a somewhat long mouth, and slender limbs like matchsticks.

“My God.” Faris crouched down. “Little thing, you are shockingly ugly.”

Little Flower faced him, revealing a silly grin. It began to wave its tiny fists.

“But it’s aggressive,” Virsa pointed out. “That shows it desires to become stronger!”

“Okay, little one, here’s the thing. There’s a magical plant expo next week, and we’re planning to take you there to show off, but you’re a bit too inexperienced right now,” Lu Wenjun said to it. “Would you like to participate in training? If you would, you can nod your head.”

Nodding.

"Very good." Lü Wenjun gave a thumbs up. "Let's begin. Perhaps you won't be that beautiful in the end..."

But we'll make you very strong!

·

Three days later, in another empty classroom, Jiu Jiu Mu happily clasped his hands together.

"Everything's going well~ This child will definitely grow up to be a very cute flower~"

A delicate flower bud had just formed, its bracts covered in white down, making it look like a cute little ball of cotton. Pershka was drawing a diagram on the small whiteboard next to him.

“Next, we’ll build a magical little rockery,” she said. “When the flowers are in bloom, we’ll transplant them there, so they can all blend into a snowy white expanse…it will be absolutely beautiful!”

Linggong asked curiously, "Oh, is this snow-capped mountain scenery Pershka's hometown?"

“You’re right. You should go see the Alps sometime; it’s much more beautiful than this little bonsai.” Persica began sketching the mountain’s structure. “Then it’ll be time to design the defenses…”

The other two nodded in agreement, while Haili (in tanuki form), who was observing, blinked and asked, "Why? Why the defense device?"

"What are you talking about, Hairi? How can you compete without defensive equipment?" Kukugi said tepidly.

"But, Your Majesty, if I understand correctly, this should be... a flower competition, right?"

Nodding.

The tanuki was shocked: "It's supposed to be a flower competition, but they need to prepare defensive equipment???"

"You're still not familiar with this place. You'll understand after staying for another month or so..." Ling Gong carefully examined the draft. "Speaking of which, this is truly an amazing design. Pershka, you should already be at the 'Legend of Mir' level, right?"

"I completed the transformation during winter break. Keep it a secret for me and that idiot," Pershka said.

Linggong grinned and leaned closer: "Why~?"

“Don’t you think it’s interesting to see his reaction when he discovers the truth, as he’s gradually building up a sense of superiority that ‘only I am the Wizard of Wonders’?” Pershka chuckled. “I’m really looking forward to his expression.”

Linggong quietly circled behind her and then jumped onto her back: "You naughty boy~"

"Ugh! Let go! I'm going to be buried under your fat!!" Pershka struggled.

Ling Gong hugged her with a mischievous grin: "Pershka is too poor, I'll share some of my friendship with you."

"I! Don't! Want! It!"

Jiu Jiu Mu watched the two bickering with a gentle expression, then turned and asked, "Speaking of which, what are the results of Xiao Haili's investigation?"

Haili's raccoon-like face froze, "Well... how should I put it... I really don't know how to express it..."

"Did they create something really impressive?"

"It's more like amazing than amazing... and more like inexplicable than amazing..." Haili rubbed his head. "Um, if you're not busy, would you like to come with me to take a look? Because this feeling of having to get this off my chest is really painful."

The three exchanged a glance and said in unison, "Let's go!"

Hali tossed out three leaves, which, with a "pop," turned the other three into tanuki (Lingyuu the largest, Kukugi the regular size, and Pershka the miniature). The tanuki team slipped out of the lab building and, led by Hali, arrived at…

The training ground on the 17th floor of the teaching building.

Pershka the tanuki was shocked: "Why would I come to such a sweaty place? The location alone is enough to leave me speechless!"

“Right, right!” Hailey nodded. She took out a small cup-shaped listening device from her bag and stuck it to a closed door.

“Listen to this…”

"Don't stop! Get up!!" Faris's voice rang out. "You're going to collapse after running only this far?! How can you meet your teammates' expectations with this kind of willpower?!"

A faint, unwilling cry.

"What's with that expression on your face? What's with those tears?!" Lu Wenjun's voice rang out. "Can your tears save the world?!"

"...xia!"

"That's it. Don't give up, get up!" Virsa shouted. "Trust your body! Remember the moves your teacher taught you!"

"Xia!!!" A tenacious shout.

"Well done!" "He did it!" "That kid's got guts!!"

Heli silently put down the bugging device, and the three raccoon dogs behind her looked like three Easter Island statues frozen in time.

"What is this?" Linggong asked.

“I don’t know…” Hailey slowly shook his head, “I don’t know…”

Chapter 28 Stereotypes are harmful

While the other contestants were discussing artistic aesthetics, Lü Wenjun and his two teammates were practicing.

While the other contestants were considering the color scheme for the petals, Lü Wenjun's trio was practicing.

While the other contestants were building defensive structures, Lü Wenjun's trio was training.

There was no time to waste on pointless dressing up; what awaited the three of them and Xiaohua was intensive training! Summary! Review and reinforcement! And so, time slipped away little by little amidst the sweat and toil. Finally, the second crazy Tuesday of March arrived—the day of the competition!

A wooden display stand was erected in front of the pub, with roots sprouting from the ground to form dark brown seats. Caboni walked among the audience carrying a tray, offering complimentary glasses of fruit wine to the guests. The organizers and invited judges sat behind the stand, arranged in a highly professional manner, with the most hated silver-haired senior from the school sitting on the far left.

"Welcome! Welcome everyone to the Goddess Cole's Spring Festival!" Chalo said, holding up the microphone. "I am the host and judge, Chalo Skal. I hope that in the new year, everyone can bring less garbage onto the stage and present works that can touch my heart!"

"In short, you better keep your mouth shut, or I'll strip you of your judging rights." Giltan sighed from the side. "I'm here in place of the student council vice president because the president is absent again... This is the esteemed festival organizer, Ms. Huyser."

Huise, holding a large flower basket, was smiling as she arranged the petals: "It doesn't matter how it turns out! It's a rare spring, let's all enjoy the flowers together."

“Just like Mother said, this festival is a relaxing little event. There’s only one rule for the competition: you can use spells to help showcase the beauty of the flowers, but you can’t use spells to interfere with or affect the other contestants or plants,” Cole said with a smile. “Now, contestants, please come up on stage one by one to present!”